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Tom Arthurs & Richard Fairhurst: Mesmer
by Chris May
One of Britain's brightest young trumpet/flugelhorn talents--he was nominated for Rising Star in the BBC Jazz Awards in 2004 and is so nominated again this year (the results are due later this month)--Tom Arthurs' progress towards wider breakthrough appears admirably nonchalant. Indeed, on occasion he seems as focused on his skills as a chocolatier and pastry ...
Thelonious Monk: Thelonious Monk Trio
by Chris May
Pianist, composer and ranking bop pioneer Thelonious Monk made a heap of recordings during his lifetime (1917-82) and, generally speaking, the further back in time you go the more magical they are. Thelonious Monk Trio (Prestige, 1954), here in a Rudy Van Gelder remaster edition, is early Monk and amongst the most eternal of his albums. ...
Fabian Gisler: Backyard Poets
by Chris May
Though he's played with some prime-time bandleaders--including pianists Bill Carrothers and Mark Soskin, saxophonist Gary Smulyan and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel--Swiss bassist Fabian Gisler is a new name to me. Backyard Poets is his debut album as leader, and it's a pleasure to make his acquaintance, and those too of his colleagues Henrik Walsdorff, saxophones, Colin Vallon, ...
Mushroom with Eddie Gale: Joint Happening
by Chris May
Here's a pocketful of magic to feed your head, lest you forgot what the doormouse said. The none-too-subtly titled Joint Happening is a psilocybin-drenched shot of late 1960s astral jazz with the funk filtered out and replaced by post-rave “tribal" beats and an art-rock keyboards and guitar sensibility referencing bands like Gong and Can. It's the ...
Nagl, Bernstein, Akchote, Jones: Big Four Live
by Chris May
Playing music which references much of jazz history, from early New Orleans collective improvisation through contemporary conservatoire-informed styles, Big Four uses similar instrumentation to soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet's 1940 quartet with cornetist Muggsy Spanier, guitarist Carmen Mastren and bassist Wellman Braud. It's no accident--the concept was suggested to alto saxophonist Max Nagl by Hat Hut producer ...
Mark Soskin: One Hopeful Day
by Chris May
Without belittling the contributions of its leader, pianist Mark Soskin, One Hopeful Day is an album dominated by the presence of saxophonist Chris Potter. It's a substantial addition to Potter's discography, and--following his most recent own-name release, the widely feted if perhaps overly mannered Underground (Sunnyside Records, 2006) with guitarist Wayne Krantz--a return to his classicist ...
Joachim Kuhn & Majid Bekkas with Ramon Lopez: Kalimba
by Chris May
Like the spectacular bouffant hairstyle he's sported since the 1970s, pianist Joachim Kuhn's music is at home in two, generally discrete traditions: intellectually rigorous, harmonically complex, longhair conservatoire music and a less cerebral strand of world jazz driven by vamps and grooves. Sometimes Kuhn keeps the two traditions apart--as on his classically oriented solo albums--at other ...
Various Artists: Jumpin' & Jivin' Volume 1
by Chris May
Various Artists Jumpin' & Jivin' Volume 1 Acorn Media 2007 The majority of the items in this wonderful nostalgia fest are “soundies" recorded 1941-1945, augmented by clips from movie shorts made in the late 1940s and early 1950s. There are 27 tracks, comprising swing, jump bands, jazz-inflected vocal ...
Pearl Harbor Jazz: Change In Popular Music In The Early 1940s
by Chris May
Pearl Harbor Jazz: Change In Popular Music In The Early 1940s Peter Townsend ISBN: 1578069248 Hardcover; 256 pages University Press Of Mississippi 2007 In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, Peter Townsend takes a vertical slice through the mainstream of American music round about ...
Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood: Out Louder
by Chris May
I got to the Medeski, Martin & Wood party late and left early. Combustication (Blue Note, 1998), a funk gumbo masterpiece with a generous side order of knowing jazz references, was and remains a satisfying meal. But neither The Dropper (Blue Note, 2000) nor Uninvisible (Blue Note, 2002) did it for me: the episodic, cut and ...
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